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| Pepper plant with petunias |
There are so many new edible varieties out every year. There are ones that are more resistant to disease. Ones that have higher nutritional value. Ones that produce more. Ones that have improved taste. Ones that are developed for their small size and big harvests for those of us who have limited space or just want to get more for the effort. It is amazing what can now be grown in pots!
A little background on plant types. We hear a lot about Monsanto and GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) and crop breeding can seem a bad thing. The difference between GMO’s and other types of crop is that GMO’s bring in genetic material from other organisms in a lab, like bacteria and even viruses. The plants are engineered so that they kill insects that try to eat it.
That is only one side of the plant breeding story. There are many other natural, with a little help, breeding of crops today. It can be as simple as saving of seeds from the best producer of last year. There are also hybrids which take the best traits of two different parents by deliberately cross pollinating two genetically distinct parent plants to produce seed. These hybrids may not produce seed that you can reuse next year and get the same vegetable as the parent.
Heirlooms and open pollinated vegetables will produce “true” to seed. The offspring will be like its parent. It isn't just the old varieties that you can save and use seeds from year to year. It is any "open pollinated", non-GMO, non-hybrid. If you find a veggie you really like at the store, it doesn't hurt a thing to save the seed and try growing it in your garden.
Through the centuries, farmers have chosen the traits they like and have built on them from season to season. This has given us Brandywine tomatoes, Vidalia onions and Jalapeño peppers. Yum!
For plant breeders recently there has focus on urban gardening: growing great tasting fruits and vegetables in small spaces and containers. There are lots of new compact, dwarf, bush, patio, container varieties available every year. Today, you can grow almost anything you like in a pot, even corn and watermelons!
Just be sure to match the right edible with the size of pot you have. Or if you are starting fresh, pick out the edible you want to grow and buy the pot that will support it. Add flowers, too. This not only adds pizazz to the container, but attracts beneficial pollinators that increase yields. A real win-win.
Also be sure you are using the right variety for the season, the pot size and sun/shade conditions your pot will be placed in. There are edibles and flowers that thrive in cold weather and shrivel in hot conditions and vice versa. Some love full sun while others need lots of shade.
Read seed packets and plant labels to get the plants that will be happy together in your pot’s growing conditions.
How to know what to grow together in a pot?
When deciding what to grow together in a pot, you can use the saying of “Thriller, Spiller, and Filler” to make it pretty. This means you want a focal point (“thriller”), like an architectural eggplant or pepper plant with a pretty petunia that is eye-catching and “spills” over the pot for summer. The eggplant and pepper plant also “fill” out the space. Or beautiful red lettuce with short vining snow peas for spring or fall.
What size pot do you need for a container veggie garden?
Any varieties listed for a smaller pot will be happy in a larger pot, too. There are many more varieties out there than listed below. Just look at the seed packet or plant label for terms like patio, compact, or dwarf. A rule of thumb for a single plant in the smallest pot you can get away with is half the diameter it says the plant’s spacing should be. Here are suggestions by pot size you have.
For containers 8” wide by 6-8” deep:
Carrots-Thumbelina, Parmex, Tonda di Parigi
Greens-arugula, corn salad, cress, small pac choi like Tatsoi, purslane
For containers 10” wide by 10” deep or larger, these will grow well:
Carrots-Atlas, Caracas, Little Finger, Adelaide, Short n Sweet
Dwarf cabbage-5 Day Golden Cross, Parel, Caraflex
Eggplant with small fruits-Bambino, Casper, Fairytale, Neon, Patio Mohican, Slim Jim, White Egg
Greens-French sorrel, salad burnet, spinach
Herbs-any. Mediterranean herbs love having dry feet.
Lettuce-Little Gem, Tennis Ball, Tom Thumb if growing to full heads
Peppers, compact types-Blushing Beauty, Chili Pepper Krakatoa, Habanero, Hungarian Yellow Wax, Sweet Pepper Ingrid, Prairie Fire, Red Delicious, Sweet Pickle, Zavory, Yellow Banana
Radishes-Amethyst, Cherry Bell, Pink Slipper, Poloneza, Red Head, Rudi
Strawberries
For containers 14-16” wide and 10” deep or larger:
Beans-compact bush types, Runner Beans on a trellis or stake
Beets
Broccoli raab
Celery
Chard
Corn-On Deck Sweet Corn
Cucumber, compact bush types-Lemon, Little Leaf, Suyo, Salad Bush, Fanfare, Sweet Success, Bush Champion, Spacemaster, Miniature White, Picklebush, Mexican Sour Gherkin, Patio Snacker
All types of eggplant
Horseradish
Kale
Okra-Little Lucy
Onions-Apache, Pompeii or the perennial Egyptian Onion
Peas-dwarf bush types
All types of peppers (large sweet peppers like bell types seem to be more productive in the ground while my snacking size hot and sweet peppers flourish in pots)
Tomatoes, look for bush, dwarf, patio, compact types-BushSteak, Patio Princess, Bush Early Girl, Tumbler, Bush Big Boy, Baxter’s Bush Cherry, Lizzano, Sweetheart of the Patio, Tumbling Tom Yellow, Bush Better Bush, Balcony, Fresh Salsa Hybrid, Celebrity, Daybreak, Johnny’s 361, Legend, Sweet Baby Girl, Sweet n Neat
Turnips
Summer squash, compact bush types-Bush Baby, Yellow Crookneck, Eight Ball, Cue Ball, Golden Delight, Anton, Patio Star, Giambo, Astia, Raven, Cosmos Hybrid (look for bush types versus vining types)
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| Pot of assorted greens and snow peas with red petunia |
Containers 20” wide by 16” deep:
Apple-Columnar varieties
Beans-any bush type, more compact pole types (look for the ones have vines 6’ or less or you can pinch off the longer types)
Blueberry-Tophat
Broccoli-I really like sprouting broccoli or broccoli raab for pots
Cantaloupe-Honey Rock, Minnesota Midget
Fig trees
Lettuce-all varieties
Peanuts
Peas-all bush types and more compact pole types (look for ones that vine 6’ or less)
Potatoes-there are containers made just for potatoes nowadays
Pumpkins-miniature, like Small Sugar
Shallots
Sweet potatoes
Watermelon-Bush Sugar Baby, Sugar Pot
Winter squash, compact bush types-Butterbush Butternut
For really large containers on the scale of a half whiskey or wine barrel:
Beans-all pole beans
Carrots-all varieties
Cucumbers-bush and vining types
Summer squash-Bush Baby, Space Miser, Egg Ball, Papaya Pear
Tomatoes
Watermelons
Winter squash-Honey Bear, Carnival, Discus Bush Buttercup
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| Black Beauty eggplant with fuchsia petunias and Egyptian walking onions |
When growing veggies and fruit in containers, they will require more watering and more liquid fertilizer than if they were in the ground. In the summer, you may have to water some water lovers every day. A rule of thumb is you will need to fertilize at twice the rate as you do your garden beds.
How to care for the summer edible garden
To reduce watering, purchase or make pots that have a water reservoir in the bottom. A couple on the market today are “Earthbox” and “Grow Box”. With this type of pot, you may be able to water weekly.
Practice crop rotation in pots like you would in the garden. Refresh the potting soil annually. Pots heat up faster in summer and cool down quicker in fall than gardening in the ground. A bonus of container gardening is that you can move them when you want or need to.
Crop rotation made easy for small gardens
With all the colors and varieties out there, beautiful container combinations can expand and beautify your garden space while providing your family nutritious food right outside your door.
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